Energy Recovery from Air Compressors in a Semiconductor Plant Using Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract

An experimental analysis based on the heat transfer principle is carried out in this paper for recovery of the heat energy in the semiconductor plant from the hot compressed air together with cold water using a plate heat exchanger. The primary objective of this analytical study is to facilitate consumers and society in terms of providing an eco-friendly mechanism possessing low manufacturing cost. This scheme of heat energy recovery from air compressor is related to energy and monetary savings, gained through low consumption of diesel oil and electricity, low value of carbon emission content, and lower maintenance cost, verified from the usage data of compressed air, water and energy, from relevant unit operation of a semiconductor plant production facility. On examining the case study, it is envisaged that an estimated amount of energy saving is about 202,703kWh per year, that can be achieved through simultaneous saving in other attributes such as diesel oil of 36,500 liters per year, i.e. no longer exist in the proposed method, carbon emission content of 207,685kg CO2 per year, and maintenance cost of about 180,000 Baht per year, with a fast payback period of 1.5 years. Several numerical examples are presented for ensuring the validity of the proposed model. The results obtained are compared to other existing method of the heat energy recovery, showing a significant potential benefits in energy recovery.